The best small towns with a serious restaurant that eat well within 90 minutes of Genova
Ligurian cooking is a cuisine of small quantities handled carefully. Anchovies salted in the spring, basil grown close to the sea and pounded with pine nuts and pecorino, focaccia pulled from the oven with pools of oil in its dimples, chickpea farinata sold by the slice from copper pans. Inland, past the coastal ridge, the register changes to chestnut flour, funghi, game and the dry white of the Gavi hills. The stone and painted stucco of these towns holds heat well into October, which is when the terraces are pleasant and the kitchens are cooking for locals again.
Most people eat in Genova, and there are good reasons for it: the caruggi, the fried-fish counters near the port, the historic bakeries, the restaurants that have been written about for decades. The city absorbs almost everyone who arrives for the region's food, and the tables that matter book out weeks ahead in summer. Beyond it, the cruise traffic and the day-trip coaches push west towards the big Riviera resorts, where the menus flatten out into the same tourist fish. The result is a lot of people eating in a small number of streets.
The coast and the hills continue in both directions, and so does the cooking. West of the city the beaches run past capes and old fishing quarters to towns where a family kitchen has held a listing in the most demanding of the guides for years. East, the shoreline breaks into coves reachable by rail, and behind Savona the valleys climb towards Piedmont and its truffles. These are the smaller places, each with a table a dining guide has singled out, and fewer people go to them.
Of the 39 communes we have mapped in within 90 minutes of Genova, 21 qualify as towns with a serious restaurant that eat well: each holds a restaurant listed by the most demanding of the guides, and a dining guide has named a table in each. This list is the small ones, 9 in all, ordered smallest first. The smallest, Portofino, has 355 residents.
If you are still choosing, we have also written The best small towns with a food festival that eat well within 90 minutes of Genova and The prettiest small villages that eat well in Liguria.
Framura
Why visit Framura
Framura is not one village but five: Anzo on the water, Setta and Ravecca on the slope, Costa above them, and Castagnola at roughly 300 meters with views back down to the coast. The commune spans from the rocky shoreline to 845 meters inland on the ridge that separates the Cinque Terre coast from the Vara valley.
Byzantine settlers built the original circular watchtowers here against Saracen raids, three of them still standing on the coast and inland. The hamlets remained agricultural until the Genova-La Spezia railway tunneled through in the late nineteenth century, opening the commune to summer visitors.
The seafront below Anzo, reached by a converted railway tunnel turned cycle path, carries the Bandiera Blu, and the same path runs north toward Bonassola and Levanto. Framura is the quiet outlier on this coast: the closest Borghi più belli village to Monterosso al Mare without being in the Cinque Terre national park.
L'Agave have been named by a guide.
What to see in Framura
- Torri bizantine. Three surviving Byzantine watchtowers on the coast and ridge, built to defend the village from Saracen incursions.
- Castagnola. Highest of the five hamlets at around 300 meters, with views over the lower frazioni and the Riviera di Levante.
- Anzo waterfront. Coastal hamlet at sea level with the Bandiera Blu beach access, the lowest of Framura's five settlements.
How to get to Framura
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 59 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October fits Framura, with the cycle path open and the coast walkable in any direction. May, June and September are the best for combining sea and hiking; mid-summer brings the strongest beach traffic but the upper hamlets stay calm. The Bandiera Blu beachfront below Anzo is small and fills early on August weekends.
Laigueglia
Why visit Laigueglia
Laigueglia sits at six meters on the Riviera di Ponente, sheltered between the two headlands that frame the bay. The name comes from Aquilia, a reference to the Roman eagle standards, and the village grew from a settlement of fishermen who came over from neighboring Andora.
Genoa bought the borough in 1609. Through the seventeenth century the economy ran on shipbuilding and the coral trade, which drew Catalan fishermen to settle in numbers and left behind the Baroque churches that anchor the centro storico today: the parish church with its curved front, and the confraternity oratory with its carved choir and Piola altarpiece.
Behind the beach, the fishermen's grid still reads as caruggi, small squares opening to the sea, houses in pale violet and ochre, the seafront watchtowers standing at the edge where the town once kept watch for raiders by sea. What the coral money built, the town has simply gone on living inside.
Savô have been named by a guide.
What to see in Laigueglia
- Chiesa di San Matteo. The curved façade fronts a Baroque interior where the three altarpieces hang alongside furnishings paid for in the coral years, when the parish stood as the visible return on the fishery's money.
- Oratorio di Santa Maria Maddalena. 1616 oratory of the Confraternita dei Disciplinanti, with a carved wooden choir and an altarpiece by Domenico Piola.
- Centro storico. Fishermen's grid of caruggi behind the beachfront, with houses painted in the pale lilac and ochre traditional to the Ponente coast.
How to get to Laigueglia
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 85 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through June and September through October are the calmer summer-edge months on this coast. The Bandiera Blu beach is open, the sea is warm enough from June onward, and the centro storico is not yet packed. July and August bring crowds, especially from Piedmont and Lombardy, and the litoraneo fills shoulder-to-shoulder. Il Salto Dell'Acciuga falls in October.
Borgio Verezzi
Why visit Borgio Verezzi
Borgio Verezzi is two settlements stitched together in 1933 under a single comune in the province of Savona. Borgio sits on the coast at the mouth of the Bottassano stream.
Verezzi rises 200 meters up the Orera hill above it, four old boroughs of stone houses in the warm-pink local rock: Piazza, Roccaro, Crosa, and Poggio, each a cluster rather than a single center. The beach below has held the Bandiera Blu without interruption since 1989.
The two halves of the town read as coast and height rather than old and new: the lower village handles the shoreline and the flag it has kept for decades, the upper village keeps its stone streets and its square turned toward the sea view. What the pairing adds up to is a comune built from two working parts, a beach town below and a hill village above, joined by administration in 1933 but still legible as separate places.
Doc have been named by a guide.
What to see in Borgio Verezzi
- Grotte di Valdemino. Dated to 1933, the caves run through chambers where small underground lakes sit beneath the karst rock, the route winding through passages carved out over time.
- Piazza Sant'Agostino. Main square of Verezzi, framed by pink-stone houses with a view down to the sea. The village skyline serves as backdrop for the festival's summer stage.
- Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo. Neoclassical parish church built in 1789 on the foundations of the medieval Burgum Albinganeum castle, with a white façade and two bell towers.
How to get to Borgio Verezzi
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 69 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the dry months on this stretch of the Riviera di Ponente. The beach at Borgio holds Bandiera Blu and the water warms into May. July and August are full: the coast road slows, the spiaggia fills with weekenders from Genova and Torino, and the theater festival runs in Piazza Sant'Agostino from early July to mid-August. Sagra della Lumaca falls in August.
Portofino
Why visit Portofino
Portofino occupies the smallest municipal territory in the Metropolitan City of Genova, 355 residents on a horseshoe harbor on the southern tip of the Portofino headland. The whole commune sits inside the Portofino Regional Natural Park and the Portofino Protected Marine Area.
Roman fortification stood on the hill above the harbor; the medieval Genoese fort took the name Castello di San Giorgio, was later renamed Castello Brown after the British consul who bought it in 1867. British and then northern European aristocrats discovered the village in the late nineteenth century.
Aubrey Herbert and Elizabeth von Arnim were among the early regulars. By 1950 tourism had replaced fishing as the main industry.
The Chiesa di San Giorgio, first built in 1154 and destroyed by a wartime bomb, was rebuilt in 1950 on the 1760 plans. The painted facades around the harbor are the photograph everyone takes.
The footpaths into the park behind the village are the reason to stay longer than the cruise day-trippers.
Piazzetta di Portofino, Cracco Portofino, DaV Mare have been named by a guide.
What to see in Portofino
- Castello Brown. Genoese coastal fort raised over a Roman site, renamed in 1867 after British consul Montague Yeats Brown, now a historic house museum above the harbor.
- Chiesa di San Giorgio. Church first built in 1154, destroyed in Second World War bombing, rebuilt in 1950 on 1760 plans, on the path up to Castello Brown.
- Faro di Portofino. Lighthouse at the tip of the Portofino headland, walking distance from the harbor along the Punta del Capo coastal path.
How to get to Portofino
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Genova is roughly 78 minutes away by road.
✷ We have written about Portofino
“A steep hill falls into the sea. The houses are crammed on the slope and painted in bright colors because they are old, packed tight, and need help. There is a small port if the cove allows it and a bigger port if the cove is generous. There is a small piazza around a small church, with maybe four restaurants, three bars, and a gelato place. There is no space for a grand square, because there is no space for grand anything in Liguria.”
Read our piece on Portofino →Tigullio Roadtrip | Four Versions of the Same Liguria
Our tip
May through June and September into October are the best months. The harbor is open, the park trails are dry, and the day-tripper rush from cruise ships is less intense than in midsummer. July and August fill the piazzetta from late morning to dusk, the ferry queues from Santa Margherita stretch to the seafront, and parking is closed to outside cars.
Monterosso al Mare
Why visit Monterosso al Mare
The village splits into two halves on either side of a headland: the older centro storico and, on the other side, the Fegina seafront where the railway runs behind the sand. The Capuchin convent looks out over both sides from that same headland, the hinge on which the whole layout turns.
Above the rooftops, at 464 meters, a hilltop sanctuary has stood on the same ground since 740, older than the village below it and the oldest Marian site in Liguria. The parish church down in the old town, banded in black and white marble, was built centuries later, so the two put a long stretch of the coast's religious history on display within sight of each other.
Montale's villa stood in Fegina, and the rocks and cliffs he carried into Ossi di seppia are the same ones visible from either half of the village. The geography here is the story: a headland dividing old from new, and a hillside holding the older of the two by several centuries.
Da Miky, L'Ancora della Tortuga, Buranco have been named by a guide.
What to see in Monterosso al Mare
- Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista. Parish church built 1282-1307 with a black-and-white-banded marble façade and a fresco of the baptism of Christ over the main portal.
- Santuario di Nostra Signora di Soviore. Hilltop sanctuary at 464 meters above the village, occupied by a church since 740, the oldest Marian site in Liguria.
- Convento dei Cappuccini. Seventeenth-century Capuchin convent on the San Cristoforo headland, separating the centro storico from Fegina.
How to get to Monterosso al Mare
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 78 minutes away by road.
✷ We have written about Monterosso al Mare
“The Cinque Terre are five towns with a national park around them and a marketing name that adds up to five. The copies without the name are a few miles away in either direction, and the experience they sell is the same experience, with the crowd divided by a hundred.”
Read our piece on Monterosso al Mare →Cinque Terre | How To Do It Right
Our tip
April through June and September through October are the workable months. The Sentiero Azzurro is open, the sea warms from late May, and the village still moves at a manageable pace. July and August are difficult: the Cinque Terre regional system caps walking-path tickets but the centro storico still saturates, and trains arrive standing-room from La Spezia. Festa del Limone falls in May.
Noli
Why visit Noli
Noli sits at four meters on the Riviera di Ponente, fifty kilometers southwest of Genoa. From 1192 to 1797 it was an independent maritime republic, the fifth alongside Genova, Pisa, Venezia and Amalfi, holding the Capo Noli headland and a stretch of coast under its own flag and protected by alliance with Genoa.
The medieval walls still ring the centro storico, and the survivors of an original eight defensive towers still rise above the rooftops, including the Torre dei Quattro Canti and the Torre Papone. Outside the walls stands the Basilica di San Paragorio, an eleventh-century Romanesque church and one of the most important early medieval buildings in Liguria, with a wooden crucifix from the twelfth century and a bishop's throne carved into a single block of stone.
The Capo Noli cliffs end the bay to the south, with footpaths leading to grottos and a hermitage in the rock. The litoraneo carries the Bandiera Blu.
Vescovado, Il Vescovado have been named by a guide.
What to see in Noli
- Basilica di San Paragorio. Eleventh-century Romanesque church outside the walls, with a twelfth-century wooden crucifix and a bishop's throne carved from a single block.
- Torre dei Quattro Canti. Surviving medieval defensive tower inside the walled centro storico, one of eight that originally ringed the maritime republic.
- Torre Papone. Second medieval tower of the original defensive ring, still standing above the rooftops of the centro storico.
How to get to Noli
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Genova is roughly 58 minutes away by road.
Our tip
May through June and September through October are the right months for Noli. The sea is warm enough from late May, the walls of the centro storico keep the streets shaded, and the coastal path to Capo Noli is walkable without midday heat. July and August fill the beach and the limited parking on the coastal road; the rest of the village stays calmer than the Bandiera Blu litoraneo. La Repubblica del Gusto falls in June.
Millesimo
Why visit Millesimo
Millesimo sits sixty kilometers inland from Genoa, over the Apennine watershed, in the upper reaches of the valley that gives the wider area its name. Enrico II Del Carretto turned the village into a fortified borgo in 1206, and his successors raised the castle later in the same century on the high ground above the settlement.
The town itself grew on the right bank of the river below that castle, its stone houses laid out in a triangle around the central piazza, with the fortified bridge carrying the crossing at the valley floor and the pilgrimage sanctuary set apart on the outskirts as the valley's separate religious focus. More than three thousand casualties fell on each side when Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the combined Austro-Sardinian forces here on 13-14 April 1796, directing the campaign from the Del Carretto palazzo on the piazza that now serves as the town hall.
The pattern is one of a small defensive settlement whose river crossing, castle and family seat all sit within sight of each other, later put to use for a battle whose scale had nothing to do with the size of the place that hosted it.
Locanda dell'Angelo have been named by a guide.
What to see in Millesimo
- Ponte della Gaietta. The old fortified body still spans the river below the village, narrow enough that its defensive purpose is obvious from either bank.
- Castello Del Carretto. Tower, keep and east wall stand above the village on the high ground, the stronghold that gave the marquis line command of the valley approach.
- Palazzo Del Carretto. The family palazzo faces the central piazza and now serves as the town hall, its rooms the setting for the 1796 headquarters rather than a battlefield relic.
How to get to Millesimo
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Genova is roughly 73 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through October are the dry months in the upper Val Bormida. The interior of Liguria runs cooler than the coast at this elevation, with mild days and chilly evenings; the rivers run higher in spring after the watershed melt. July and August warm up but Millesimo's 429 meters stay tolerable.
Gavi
Why visit Gavi
Gavi sits at 233 meters where the Lemme stream meets the Rio Neirone, the southern edge of Piemonte before the Apennines drop to Genova. The first record of vines here is a 972 tribute paid to the Republic of Genoa, three Genoese pounds of wine.
The medieval town clusters along the narrow valley below the Forte di Gavi, a polygonal star fortress built and expanded by the Genoese between 1540 and 1673 on the foundations of a tenth-century castle. The fort fell to French-Savoyard troops in 1625 and was retaken in twenty-one days; under the Savoy it became a prison, then a prisoner-of-war camp for Austro-Hungarian and later Allied soldiers in both world wars.
Cortese di Gavi was made DOC in 1974 and DOCG in 1998. Wine from vines inside the commune may be labeled Gavi di Gavi, and the consortium maintains a separate denomination for grapes grown in the historic center.
La Gallina, Locanda La Raia have been named by a guide.
What to see in Gavi
- Forte di Gavi. Polygonal star fortress on the hill above the town, built by the Genoese 1540 to 1673, later a Savoy prison and WWI/WWII POW camp.
- Chiesa di San Giacomo Maggiore. Romanesque parish church in the medieval center, with twelfth-century stonework and a baroque interior.
- Centro storico. Stone-house old town along the Lemme stream, arcaded streets and small piazzas framed by terraced vineyards.
How to get to Gavi
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Genova is roughly 54 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through October is the year. May and June bring green hills and the Lemme running clear; September and October are dry, with the harvest and the first cool nights. July and August touch the high twenties; the Forte di Gavi closes its tower walks in the afternoon heat. Gavi sotto il Forte falls in July.
Celle Ligure
Why visit Celle Ligure
Celle Ligure sits at sea level on the Riviera di Ponente, ten kilometers west of Savona. The Aleramici marquises gave the lands to a Piedmontese monastery in 1014; the Genovese families took them over within a generation.
Pope Sixtus IV's family came from here. The lower town runs along the lungomare, with Piazza dei Mille at its center, while the centro storico sits behind it as a borgo of narrow caruggi, one of the Borghi più belli d'Italia.
A handful of artisan kilns still work these streets, ceramic shop signs marking the buildings where the trade continues. The parish church stands within this old town, its façade carrying the ceramic Assumption by Lucio Fontana, San Michele defeating the dragon rendered in the same medium the town has fired since the seventeenth century.
The pieces read as one place rather than several: a fishing and beach economy along the shore, a ceramic trade worked into the old quarter behind it, and a native artist's public commission set into the church that anchors both.
Meta Ristorante have been named by a guide.
What to see in Celle Ligure
- Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo. Inside, a Via Crucis by Caminati hangs alongside ceramic stations by Emanuele Luzzati, a pairing of local ceramic craft with the Fontana work on the façade outside.
- Centro storico. Borgo of narrow caruggi behind the lungomare, with active artisan ceramic workshops and ceramic shop signs on the buildings themselves.
- Spiaggia di Celle Ligure. Sand and gravel beach that forms the basis of the town's summer economy, backed by the lungomare and the old town behind it.
How to get to Celle Ligure
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Genova is roughly 40 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the dry months on this stretch of the Ponente. The sea warms enough for swimming by late May. July and August are full: the lungomare slows, the beach establishments fill with weekenders from Torino, and the Aurelia stays clogged from Albisola to Varazze on Friday afternoons.
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